Poll of the Day > Let's talk about how pain/low health is portrayed in games.

(+) Yeah! (+)

You've got the obligatory bloodshot vision in FPS.

Then of course there is the audible heart beat. The old school games had the beep beep of near death.

Flashes of light! You're taking damage!

What's the best? What's the worst?
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Depends the game but in general I find the current style to be more immersive.
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The bloody HUD has generally been the most useful, along with accompanying sounds.
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I honestly prefer numbers, or a bar, or just something with a concrete limit.

I just like knowing where I stand in comparison to other people or my personal death. Health splatters are too floaty for me and I don't like hidden information, unless that's one of the goals of the game of course.

It's already a game, and clearly a game, I don't really understand the whole "immersive" argument for a lot of stuff for games already :/

Eating food/medicine/using bandages on the field won't heal bullet wounds, and you won't die from getting shot in the foot. Humans don't have a health bar, and they only stay "knocked out" for maybe 30 seconds. If you get hit from even a single bullet from a "weak" gun, there's a good chance you'll just bleed out.

Assault rifles/machine guns are extremely nerfed in video games. Shotguns have range like most other weapons and don't weaken with range like they do in games.

Yellow posted...

If you get hit from even a single bullet from a "weak" gun, there's a good chance you'll just bleed out.

Eh, .22 shorts don't kill people immediately after getting hit

The labored breathing in the Dead Space games was done well.

But sometimes I play at low health in games when advancement is unhindered for quite some time and there is that constant reminder annoying you to heal.
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Rainbow six 3:

one hit you dead

I always liked Halo’s. Beeping energy shields.
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I prefer visual indications. The low health beep is just fucking annoying.
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i like when my health regenerates over time
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Visual indicators(if it's a third person game) and/or health bar, although the healthbar should fit the look of the game and not look garish(Like Fallout 4). Been playing through RE4 recently and I like how Leon holds his side when he's hurt, more stuff like that please, this bloody screen nonsense in FPS games is irritating to a level I can no longer bear.
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I accept that shooters are completely inaccurate, and I think it's a good thing, because being wounded and dying in an infectious backwoods wasteland while my limbs race me down the street is probably not that fun.

Yellow posted...

you won't die from getting shot in the foot.

Having taken an extensive first aid course, you can. Not like in the games where you immediately die, but you can die from it. Shock is a huge danger and they stress it so much that you have to treat it as soon as you've applied what first aid you're capable of to the wounds (if any).

Still probably not likely, but it still can happen.
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While the games are great in general, the beeping when you get low on health in early zeldas is the worst.

I like HP the most. Preferably a reasonable amount, like in FFT, where no one is tanking a million hits, unless they're avoiding them or healing.
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Worse is beeping in Zelda.

In Skyward Sword there was constant beeping and a notification that pauses the game to tell you you have low health.

Even though it's technically more detrimental to game play I like the bloody edged screen because it makes you feel like you're hurt in a more believable way without being very annoying.
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